is msnbc, the place for politics. we are just one month until election day, november 6th, and just five days until the vice presidential debate. coming up, we'll take a look at what the number twos are doing to prepare for that. and will the new lower unemployment number usher the president into a second term? we'll talk to the obama campaign's vice chair, jan schakowsky. topping our political headlines, mitt romney is out with a new podcast this afternoon, in which he attacks president obama over his debate performance. >> president obama could not defend his record. he offered no new ideas for how to fix the economy. i welcome the chance to share my vision for renewed prosperity and opportunity and i think it compared quite favorably to president obama's policy for big, trickle-down government. >> this past hour, mitt romney's son, josh, met with reporters in the swing state of virginia. it's part of a day-long effort the campaign is calling super saturday, with volunteers going door to door in battleground states. president obama has no public events today. he will head to california

tomorrow, where he is expected to tout the new jobs number, 7.8%, and some big fund-raising numbers out today. president obama and the democrats raised $181 million in september, the highest single-month total so far. more on all these stories throughout the next two hours. the campaign focus shifts a bit next week to the vice presidential nominees. paul ryan and joe biden will face off in their only debate next thursday night. paul ryan has just left his four-day debate camp. he is heading back to wisconsin for a fund-raiser tonight. and as for the vice president, we check in with msnbc news campaign embed carrie dan. she's embedded with vice president joe biden's team. carrie, vice president biden's schedule shows him to be in wilmington, delaware, right now, and for the next few days. what is planned for him? >> that's right, milissa. he's going to be doing his own

debate camp there, up until a day before the debate. he's spending time with chris van hollen, that's his sparring partner. van hollen has worked with paul ryan, he's a democrat from maryland, who worked with ryan with and against on the house budget committee. so van hollen is someone who's very familiar, not only with his policies. so the two of them will be participating in mock debates. they've done two to date, and i'm sure they'll be doing a lot more up until wednesday, before they head to danville, kentucky, for the big night. >> what is the biggest concern for mr. biden and his team? >> well, when they really would like to do is to change the conversation from last week's performance by barack obama, get to change that conversation on thursday, and to really talk specifically about the ryan budget. joe biden told reporters last week that what he's doing is looking at ryan's policies and seeing how he can apply them to the ryan/romney ticket as a whole. what they really would like to do is talk a lot about those ryan fiscal policies. things like kucutting spending,

reforming medicare, looking at social security. what biden would like to do is talk a lot about those issues. one issue for the vice president, he hasn't been doing a lot of interviews or interactions with reporters. he hasn't really been questioned on a lot of the claims he makes about the ryan budget on the campaign trail. so it's going to be sort of a new thing for him to be questioned by reporters by the moderator, and by the candidate himself on the claims he's making on how those budget policies would impact everyday americans. >> a lot was said four years ago about joe biden's debate with sarah palin. now, he has known congressman ryan for quite some time. they have dealt together. how do you expect the tone to be different? >> well, remember, four years ago, biden had really one big challenge. he didn't want to make any major mistakes. but his only really great big challenge in that debate was sarah palin was this new figure, very controversial, had had some recent slip-ups. he had to not come across as condescending. he had to have an even performance, get through the night. this is going to be a very

different night. as you said, the two men know each other, they both have very in-depth policy backgrounds. i think you'll see a lot more depth of policy knowledge exchanged, a lot more barbed attacks, and biden's going to have to go after ryan for those particular policies and talk a lot about his own expertise in not only budget matters but also foreign policy. i think you'll see a lot more depth in terms of the conversation on thursday than you did four years ago. >> carrie dan, thank you and good luck out there. >> thanks a lot. the upcoming debate puts the vice presidential nominees in the spotlight. we have heard from our campaign embeds on how the nominees are preparing. so what is at stake in the vice presidential debate? joining me is matt visor, the national political reporter for "the boston globe," and erin mcpike, political reporter for real clear politics. thanks to you both. mike, let's start with you. the "national journal" points out that biden has not set for a national interview in more than

five months. he can be prone to having bloopers now and then that are always well talked about. are democrats concerned about what the democrats might say? >> sure. i mean, i think one of the best attributes of joe biden's is his ability to speak off the cuff. it creates some gaffes and missteps, but it's sort of rare to have a politician who's unscripted. so it's great for those of us who are paid to consult him, but there could be any moment that he goes off script. >> erin, the republicans are stepping up their criticism of joe biden. did the vice president give critics an opening when he talked about a tax hike. let's listen. >> you know the phrase they always use? obama and biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars. guess what? yes, we do, in one regard. we want to let that $1 trillion tax cut expire so the middle

class doesn't have to bear the burden of all the money going to the super-wealthy. >> does the vice president's style create a risk for the democratic ticket? >> he does. you know, it's something that they've been watching with joe biden for years, but joe biden has been preparing for an entire week. by thursday when the debate happens, he will have spent almost a week at his home in wilmington preparing. and when he is prepared, he is much better in that he doesn't make those same gaffes. when he nose what it is that he needs to say and he's not going off the cuff in this style, he does better. >> on thursday, joe biden went aggressively after governor romney on taxes. let's take a look at that. >> you just never know what game or what position governor romney's going to come with. you know, the centerpiece of their economic policy, so far, has been their tax cut. and last night, we found out he doesn't have a $5 trillion tax

cut, and i guess he outsourced that to china or something. >> you know, the vice presidential candidate traditionally plays the role of the attack dog. do you think that's what joe biden was doing right there? >> yeah. and joe biden sort of louse an entree into the obama campaign into a group they're most concerned about, which is blue-collar workers, reagan democrats, people in the industrial midwest. so i think biden sort of does a good job at outreaching to those types of people. it should be said, in the past couple of days, though, obama himself has not been too hesitant in criticizing mitt romney aside from those 90 minutes when they were on the debate stage together. but i think obama is also kind of playing the role of the attack dog over the past few days, at least. >> erin, congressman ryan has a full schedule of campaign events in the days proceeding the event. vice president biden, as you have been saying, has been hunkering down to prepare. what does that say about the confidence level in the final days before the debate.

given all the criticism that people received, people accusing him of not being prepared, mitt romney being very well prepared. do you think that the obama camp is taking a look at that and trying to apply improvements to the vice presidential debate? >> there's no question about that. as i said, of course vice president biden is spending the week at his home. but paul ryan, i would point out, has gone to his home in janisville, wisconsin, fairly frequently as being picked as romney's running mate so he can do this debate prep. but i would say the expectations are much higher for paul ryan going into the debate than they are for joe biden, which, as we know, when expectations are higher, then that candidate can tend to have a bigger problem. so i think joe biden probably will outperform the expectations for him on thursday night. >> well, to both of you, what are paul ryan's strengths and weaknesses going into this debate? >> i think probably his strengths is that he is a fresh face. that gives a lot of opportunity coming into something where you can introduce yourself to the

country. and on a big stage, the downside i think for paul vine the inexperience on such a stage. he's really not only been on the national stage debating, but even on a congressional level, he hasn't had a competitive race since his first one in 1996. so i think he's got a lot of catching up to do in terms of just being on that type of a stage. >> paul ryan's also running for re-election in wisconsin for congress. state law allows him to do that as well as running for the vice presidency, but what challenges does that present? >> it's just that it can look bad. but i would also point out that joe biden also was running for re-election for the senate in delaware when he was brarack obama's running mate four years ago. so this is a pretty commonplace thing to do. >> all right, matt visor from "the boston globe" and erin mcpike from real clear politics, thank you both. >> thank you. coming up, new polls out today show mitt romney with a double-digit deficit in his

running mate's home state. we will give you the latest spread on that. but first, which president obama is preparing to emerge at the next debate? we'll talk to his campaign's vice chairwoman, next. this is msnbc.

well, mitt romney is not backing off of his attacks of president obama's economic policies, no matter what the latest jobs report says. he told a florida crowd last night that the president is out of ideas and says wednesday's debate proved that. >> he got a chance to explain his jobs program. how he's going to create new jobs in america. did you hear what he had to say? i didn't either.

i kept looking for a specific plan as to what he was going to do to create jobs. i heard more of the same, stimulus, hiring more government workers, raising taxes. those things don't create jobs, they cost jobs. >> joining me now is illinois democratic congresswoman jan schakowsky. she is also vice chair of the president's re-election campaign. and congressman, before i get to those jobs numbers, "the new yorker" has a cover, i'm sure you've seen, depicting mitt romney debating an empty podium, which, of course is a commentary on president obama's lackluster debate performance. you indicated the president may have been thrown off by romney's claims, which president obama says aren't what he has been running on. nevertheless, how is your team preparing the president right now to perform differently next time? >> well, you know, the "chicago sun-times" has an editorial that started, "obama on the facts, romney on style." you know, there was a different

guy that appeared, as barack obama said, on debate night, that came up with a whole new set of policies and contradicted himself completely from what is the reality of the romney campaign. it's kind of hard to debate a new guy. >> well, in that last comment that we just saw, really, i mean, up until the debate, people in the republican party were asking mitt romney for more details, more specifics on his plans. so it does seem like there's just been a massive flip-flop. >> you know, and if we want to rate it as kind of a tv show and a tv pmpx,erformance, i underst where people were sayi ining romney's style was better and he came really strongly and the president didn't respond. and i think you'll see something different. but, you know, the very next day, we saw some reality. and that was 7.8% unemployment, which is the lowest in 44

months. so in some ways, i think i would make the trade of a not-so-great debate performance and something that really helps the american people and shows that the economy is moving in the right direction. that's the job numbers. >> back to the debate, just for one moment longer. behind closed doors, i mean, as much as you can share with me, of course, what was the campaign's reaction to the president's debate performance right afterwards? >> well, i think the campaign was very busy talking about -- writing out some fact checking on mitt romney and just the one after another series of misstatements and outright lies that he made. but i don't think there's anybody on the campaign who feels that the president did as well as he could and as well as he will in the next debate. but the other thing is that we haven't seen a lot of movement, actually in the polls and

movement away from barack obama. after some of the focus groups, both men had an increase in their favorability. you know, so we'll see what kind of effect it has long-term, but that i think he's going to do better. >> well, one thing did happen. we have found out that mitt romney's campaign says it has collected $12 million in online contributions since the wednesday debate. these are regular people. these are people who are impressed by his performance and contributed online. does your campaign feel threatened by that? >> well, you know, the online contributions of the obama campaign, 10 million people having contributed online, i don't think that the romney campaign is going to catch up in terms of online ordinary people contributions for the very reason that ordinary people are best represented by barack obama, and that his campaign, the campaign infrastructure is

much better than the romney campaign, which will pay off on election day too. >> well, it would be a tall order to capture barack obama and fund-raising for the month of september. the campaign today announced that it raised $181 million in september. i mean, that's just head shaking. it is the best month yet. where do you think that money is best spent? >> well, we have a field operation that is, i think the best in the history of campaigns in this country. of course, they're going to continue in the battleground states to be on the rare and doing outreach. you know, we're hiring buses in illinois to go to surrounding states where there's a real contest for president. in illinois, we're doing just fine. and so i think that they're going to continue to put the money both on the ground and in the air. >> the number from friday's jobs report that jumped out at people

was the 873,000 people that are newly employed. at the same time, the report shows the number of people working part-time, either because their hours were cut or they couldn't find a full-time job rose by 581,000. so is there danger if the obama campaign taking any kind of a victory lap here? >> well, you know, you saw that after the numbers were announced, which were certainly good news, that 8% was kind of a benchmark, and the republicans, i kind of have to laugh. it's like, oh, good news for the economy, bad news for the republicans. and they were talking about cooking the books, et cetera. was the obama administration didn't spike the ball, because we know that there is a long way to go yet, despite the good news. it's indication that we're beginning to clean up the mess that was left to barack obama when he was sworn in. but that, no, that we're not satisfied, but it certainly is an indication, one that the

republicans simply won't recognize that progress is, in fact, being made despite their efforts to try to talk down the economy, to try to sabotage any legislation that would actually put people to work. so i think they can't deny the math. >> all right. we'll have to leave it at that. democratic congresswoman jan schakowsky from the obama campaign, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. there's been a lot of talk about which mitt romney have shown up at wednesday's presidential debate. but many say they've seen that mitt romney before. coming up, we'll talk to a person who says she debated that mitt romney back in 2002, massachusetts democrat shannon o'brien. sky-high, the price of gas hits an all-time record in california. will the rest of the nation follow? we'll get a live report. >> i'm going to show you how to make a wad of paper. a wad of paper can be a lot of fun, just to play with around

the house or maybe toss expertly into a trash can. >> and later, yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is steve martin, but what is the star of "stage and screen" doing in this internet video? the answer is ahead, you're watching msnbc. new prilosec otc wildberry is the same frequent heartburn treatment as prilosec otc. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

in our what's the big idea segment, several celebrities are making perhaps the most nonpartisan request this campaign season. they are simply asking young americans to vote for stuff. led by leonardo dicaprio, an all-star cast is calling on young voters to post tweets, photos, and youtube videos on stuff that matters to them most. the point is to encourage discussion of those issues on the trail and get more young people voting. take a look. >> what stuff is important to you in the upcoming election? >> here's what we want you to do, in 30 seconds or less -- >> make a video telling us what stuff is important to you -- >> and we'll make you a star. just kidding.

>> dicaprio, whose production company is behind vote for stuff, says the group's purpose to is incite bipartisan conversation, conversation around real issues. vote for stuff says that content posted by young people will now be included in the group's future projects. who is the fairest of them all? bristol palin weighs in on her mom versus actress julianne moore. and they may be the ultimate swing voters. how asian americans are playing a prominent role as perhaps the most elusive voting bloc. you're watching msnbc, plax. ad? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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boproductivity up, costs down, thtime to market reduced... those are good things. upstairs, they will see fantasy. not fantasy... logistics. ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems... ups? ups. not fantasy? who would have thought? i did. we did, bob. we did. got it. i'm milissa rehberger. here's a quick look at some of the top stories making news now. sketches just into msnbc are of radical preacher abu al masri. he's best known of the five terrorist suspects that were just extradited from great britain. the cleric is accused of setting up a terrorist training camp in oregon and kidnapping two

american tourists in yemen in 1998. al masri did not enter a plea. a vatican tribunal convicted pope's former butler and sentenced him to 18 months in jail. he was found guilty of stealing pope benedict's private papers and leaking them to a reporter. the cdc says the outbreak of meningitis rises to seven now. more than 50 people have been infected. and some of the jurors who convicted jerry sandusky say they plan to attend his sentencing on tuesday. they tell the associated press they hope that he'll be sent away for the rest of his life. the 68-year-old sandusky was convicted of child sexual abuse. sticker shock might be an understatement for californians trying to fill up their tanks today. today the price of regular gas in the golden state equaled an all-time high of $4.61 a gallon. that is up an astounding 12 cents since just yesterday, and

47 cents in the past week alone. nbc's diana alfier joins us live from burbank, california. thank you for being here. why has this price shot up so quickly? >> reporter: milissa, that is indeed the question on everyone's minds around here. check out what the price is at this station in burbank, $4.69 per gallon for regular. now, experts tell me the reason for all of this happens to be a perfect storm of events. right now stations are changing over from their summer blend to their winter blend, which means that inventories are naturally running low. add to that a power outage and a fire at a refinery and you've got yourself these sky-high prices. >> -- in the country? >> reporter: now, if you're wondering how long this is going to last, when prices are falling everywhere across the country, well, not that long. experts are telling me they're expecting things to get bk online. they really feel that the prices

have peaked and they feel that drivers may be feeling some relief at the pump within the next five days. >> thank you very much for joining us, diana. six in ten asian american voters voted for president obama in 2008, but this year with the economy front and center, some are reconsidering. so if just a small percent of the country's asian population go with governor mitt romney, could they actually swing the election? it depends on which state wii talking about. msnbc's richard lui has more from the critical swing state of virginia. >> i just don't know who's going to be able to kind of get to that middle ground, when the time comes. >> reporter: yet his vote could count most. it's because he is in virginia, one of a hand full of states up for grabs in the election. and as is said, as swing states go, so goes the election. 100% of them have been negative. >> reporter: in haresh's case, he voted for president obama in 2008, the first year a democrat

won virginia since 1964. another reason his vote is valuable to candidate, he's asian american, and because of that, four times more likely to be an undecided voter, according to a new study. that group also makes campaign donations at a rate only second to whites. >> but this voting group isn't monolithic. most don't share a common language or culture. >> reporter: three out of four asian americans or pacific islanders are from 49 foreign countries, like haresh, who is from india, which is partially why his vote is for immigration. >> i wouldn't say i vote because i am asian american, i vote because i'm a citizen of the united states of america. >> asian americans just like to be americans. when the candidates reach out to them, they're thrilled about that. >> reporter: like on the economy, asian americans are just as worried. >> one candidate is going to fix the immigration thing, one is going to fix the budget thing.

>> who are you going to pick? >> that's why i'm undecided. >> reporter: he is not alone, virginia has 6% asian americans, nevada, almost 8, and west virgin virginia, 2.3%. >> you can bet your bottom dollar both candidates will be working hard to get their vote. >> which is why voters like haresh could become 2012's ultimate swing vote. richard lui, nbc news, washington. >> for more insuight into all o this, i want to bring in toby and christine, both from a nonpartisan voter mobilization group and a professor of political science at the university of california riverside and principle investor for the national asian american survey. thank you all for being here. first of all, something richard lui mentioned in his report just a moment ago, the asian american vote is not one big voting bloc.

we're talking about descendents of more than 50 countries, different cultures, different issues. how should we think about the asian american vote given that diversity? >> now, you do have all that national origin diversity, but at the same time, we do find some general patterns and trends. so generally speaking, you have about half of this population that does not identify with either party. about a third of them are undecided in terms of voting for obama or romney. but that said, they favor president obama over mitt romney by about a 2 two one ratio, generally speaking. >> christine, you've been attractiving the country speaking on the issue of the asian american vote. what would you say on the energy level? >> there's actually great energy and excitement about the elections. we've actually seen an influx of more aipgs american pacific islander nonprofits, doing outreach work to get more of our community registered. but at the same time, over 31% of our community are undecided.

a lot of them are first-time voters, so the parties and the presidential campaigns really need to do a lot more work in reaching out to our community. >> toby, in 2008, barack obama won 62% of the asian american vote compared to 35% for john mccain, according to the exit polls. is there any chance of that kind of a landside for president obama this time around, or is there too much of a juxtaposition between the immigration issue and the economy? >> no, i think it's very possible. i mean, there's certainly an old way and a new way of engaging voters and the president's campaign has certainly started very early, engaging asian american and pacific islanderers voters and he's also created a whole new sort of stage for asian americans in his administration. he's appointed more to the cabinet level, has record num r numbers in his administration, record number appointed to federal benches. and right now you see the romney campaign, they are trying to make inroads into this

constituency, primarily by focusing on small business issues. and i think there's real choice in front of asian american voters right now. what we are seeing in all of our polling is that asian americans are most likely going to vote at levels that are even greater than at 2008, in part because they're more voters within the community and it will be interesting to see how that pans out. >> carthick, you found that obama leads romney 43% to 24%, yet 33% is undecided. that is a huge number, 33%. does that surprise you? >> it doesn't surprise us, because we found a similar proportion in 2008. but it does surprise people who are used to seeing something like 7% or 8% from most polls of the general population in the united states. so the quintessential swing vote is the asian american vote. and as tobey said, this is a vote that is just growing over time. we had 2000 voters, and we

anticipate even more as you get the second generation that are entering into voting age and more enthusiasm among asian american voters. >> christine, in north carolina, asian americans make up 2.3% of the population. that's larger than the margin of difference between obama and mccain in 2008. in florida, asian americans are 2.4% of the population. nevada, around 8%. virginia, around 6%. how big of an impact do you expect asian americans to have in these critical swing states. >> well, especially in nevada and virginia, we've actually seen a lot more activity. both from nonpartisan organizations, was also at the same time, the presidential campaigns. for instance, in virginia, i've heard that chinese americans se being reached out by robo calls, by the romney campaign, by utilizing secretary ciao. both in in romney and virginia,

they're utilizing field workers to take volunteers door to door and do phone banking operations. we're not seeing that same activity in terms of outreach in north carolina or florida, but our nonprofits are doing what they can to actually register more voters and to ensure they actually understand the changing laws of the voter i.d. laws in those states as well. >> toby, what's the romney campaign strategy to reach asian american voters and how does it care to the obama campaign strategy. how can the campaigns do a better job, in your view? >> certainly the romney campaign is going back to its argument that top-end tax cuts will help business owners, specifically. but if you look at the engagement that's happening on president obama's campaign, it's very fascinating. it's been focused at the neighborhood level, probably at an unusually early part of the cycle, they started doing the field operations. they're also organizing online, through a digital dashboard. so that these constituents can organize themselves. and that's probably the most interesting thing about this election cycle. you're seeing a new generation

of candidates from within the community starting to challenge the debate in the country. you're starting to see activists who are actually forcing changes that wouldn't otherwise happen. and it's that organization at the ground that's going to make the biggest difference. and frankly, candidates across the board would be intelligent to be engaging in that conversation. >> toby, how do you get out the vote with such a diverse population of voters and so many different languages involved. >> it actually adds to the complication, right? >> right. >> that's why it's so important to have engagement that is really constituency specific. what we do know, though, is that despite the fact that there are so many different barriers, differences in language and in culture, these communities across the board are looking for what many middle class families are looking for. they're looking to revive the american dream. an asian american dream, if you will. and they're looking to restore the economy. so they're looking out for which

candidate can really deliver a solution to those kinds of problems that they're facing every day. >> all rit, thank you all for your time today. appreciate it. coming up, key victories in the battle over i.d.s at the ballot box. t democrats are striking down now rulings that are targeting battleground states. and what does steve martin, a ball of paper and a political endorsement have to do with one another? well, we will make that connection. this is msnbc. r? the answer? a lot less. the great american fix-up is going on now... ...with new projects every week and big savings every day. so you can do what needs to be done. today. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, owens corning ecotouch attik insulation is only $11.87 a roll.

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mate show eed a three-point gap. however, since then, the president has pulled away and now leads by 11 points, 53% to 42% point. turning to connecticut, a new quinnipiac poll shows the president with a similar lead, 54% to 42%. but the race to watch is down further on the blah. quinnipiac found that senate candidates chris murphy and linda mcmahon are locked in a dead heat as they battle for retiring senator joe lieberman's seat. right now the republican linda mcmahon holds a one-point lead, 48% to 47%. along with being one of the hardest fought and most expensive senate races in the country, it's also one of the nastiest. according to the yale "daily news," the two campaigns combined have sponsored more than 3,700 negative ads. and now time once again for some trail mix. and in this case, steve martin lending his wild and crazy humor in support of a political pal.

he endorsing nebraska's democratic state senator bob kerry for re-election under the guise of showing viewers how to make a crumpleded up wad of paper. and his instructions were a little naushl. >> you're going to need a blank piece of paper, some paper clips, a few brads, a stapler, a stick of gum, some scissors, and a hammer. >> bristol palin giving a boost to mama grizzly sarah while smacking down actress julianne moore. the former "dancing with the stars" contestant says that moore who recently won an emmy for her portrayal of her mother in "game change" was not a good interpretation of her mom who she calls, quote, way hotter. and mitt romney's better

half is slated to fill in as guest host of wednesday's edition of "good morning america" for the ailing anchor, robin roberts. the network is also pursuing first lady michelle obama for a similar hosting gig. and president obama is setting off the blink meter during his first debate. according to a smart politics analysis, president obama blinked at a rate of 70.8 times per minute. that is a thousand more than mitt romney during the course of that debate. psych physiologists say that since 1980, the candidate who blinked the least during the debates went on to win the popular vote. there are exceptions, though. in 2004, president george w. bush not only blinked more in the debate against senator john kerry, he also won re-election, so there you go. up next, getting in the way of democracy. the latest news that could affect who might get stopped on their way to the voting booth during election day. this is msnbc. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup

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just yesterday, a u.s. appeals judge has ordered that early voting can continue in ohio. that is a key key victory for democrats in the battleground state where republican lawmakers had moved to limit the number of voters eligible to cast their ballots ahead of the november election. the ruling follows a number of other recent decisions that strike down so-called voter suppression laws. but there is still concern that voter disenfranchisement will be an issue on election day. joining me now is matt viser, and aaron pike of real politics. matt, let's start with you. election officials in ohio including the republican attorney general and the secretary of state say they haven't decided yet whether to appeal the appeals court ruling. do you see an 11th hour effo by republicans somehow to limit access to early voting after all? >> yeah, they may continue to

try to do so. i think you're seeing in state after state this happens where republicans are sort of trying to make a limited number of people to vote. and you can see why in some of the early polling where registered voters tend to support obama at a greater margin than likely voters do. so the obama campaign is trying to insure that as many people as possible can vote in as easy a way as possible. so you're seeing that in ohio. >> he had a great early showing back in 2008, and that's what they're concerned about, right? >> yeah. i think they're concerned about obama being able to drive up the margins like he did in 2008 again this time around. >> erin, democrats have had a number of favorable rulings recently to block voter suppression efforts, including measures in pennsylvania and also in florida. where do you think voter suppression is going to be the biggest issue come election day? >> there was some worry that it would be pennsylvania without the ruling that they got earlier this week there was some concern

that 750,000 people in pennsylvania could be disenfranchised. democrats won that so you dent really see republicans contesting pennsylvania in the election anymore. we're not going to see the romney campaign spend much money there, because it looks like that state will go to obama. the state to watch is florida. now the republicans won a ruling there, but it was only concerning about 198 voters. but that should tell you something, when both sides are argue over 198 voters. they can tell that that state will be very close. and if you remember the 2000 elect, that state was won by just 572 votes. so that's a state that we should be watching very closely. >> you know, matt, let's continue on that. because despite the victory in ohio, democrats are still facing challenges in florida, as erin was just saying. this week a judge there ruled that the state can continue its purge of potential noncitizens. the key issue has been claims that eligible voters are being mistakenly disenfranchised.

is this going to affect the outcome in florida, which, you know, election to election, you never know. you never know in florida, do you? >> florida, florida, florida. >> right. >> that's right. and a inger are inis right. i think it does show kind of the amount of attention that both campaigns are putting on a key state in trying to work the margins in a race that could be razor-thin. and florida is vital for certainly for romney. there is other pathways for obama to win without florida. but if he wins florida, it makes it extremely difficult for romney to win overall. so i think that's where we're seeing the biggest battle on all types of fronts, including these voter registration laws. >> all right. matt vizer of the boston globe, and erin mcpike of real clear politics, thank you so much. >> thank you. now for a little trail dust where. you play -- that you may have missed from the campaign trail. yesterday president obama made a

rain-soaked appearance in cleveland, ohio. he poked fun at governor romney's suggestion in wednesday's debate that he would defund pbs, the home of "sesame street." let's take a listen. >> even though he has been proposing this plan for months now, he has run into a little trouble explaining how it would work without blowing up the deficit or making it work for middle class families. the other night he ruled out asking millionaires and billionaires to ask to pay even a dime more in taxes. he said no way he is going to close loopholes that are giving big oil companies billions of dollars each year in corporate welfare. and in tax breaks for corporations that are shipping jobs overseas and profits overseas, he said he never heard of such a thing, never heard of it. who knew, he said. he acted shocked. said he needs a new accountant. his current accountant is doing just fine.

when he was asked how he would actually cut spending and reduce the deficit, he said he would go after funding for public television. so for all you moms and kids out there, don't worry. somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. elmo, you better make a run for it. governor romney is going to let wall street run wild again, but he is going to bring the hammer down on "sesame street." you want me save big bird? that. >> was president obama yesterday afternoon in cleveland. i was out in utah full-time. i had no responsibility for management at bain capital. >> mitt romney wasn't questioned

about bain capital in his latest debate, but he was in a 2002 debate in a governor's race. we'll talk the woman who took the issue to him ten years ago. and up next, the unemployment rate nationwide may have dropped below 8%. but in some of the battlegrounds where this election will be decided, the unemployment rate is still way above 8, and it could affect how people vote. next, we'll take you live to one of those battlegrounds. two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs

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